Strengths of Scotland's investment management industry

As the UK’s largest financial services centre outside of London and an established global investment management centre, Scotland’s investment management industry has a number of key strengths:

  • Infrastructure - Scotland’s experience of financial services professionals provides a full support network
  • Expertise - around £750 billion of funds are currently managed directly in Scotland, with £250 billion invested worldwide in equities and bonds
  • Global reputation - many of the world’s top 20 financial services businesses have Scottish operations
  • Academic strength - particularly in business studies, accountancy and languages
  • Profitable - Scotland offers savings in operational costs without compromising quality

Scotland’s extensive investment management experience includes:

  • Investment trusts
  • OEICs (Open-Ended Investment Companies)
  • Unit trusts
  • Global equity
  • Global fixed income
  • Money market funds
  • Private equity
  • Venture capital
  • Property funds
  • Hedge funds
  • Specialist equity and bond funds
  • Emerging market funds

Skills and expertise

Scotland’s educated and skilled workforce are perfectly suited to the investment management industry:

  • Experience - one of Europe’s leading financial centres
  • Education - Europe’s highest concentration of universities provides high quality graduates
  • Flexible, well-trained workforce - financial and administrative expertise

Investing in Scotland's investment management sector